"Church is for worship, not entertainment"

A guest editorial by a Sioux Falls resident (not an Episcopalian) appears in last week's Argus Leader "voices" feature.

"I am a middle-aged Christian who has been a longtime church-goer until recently. I have not left the church, but the church has most certainly left me. In an effort to find one that doesn't use a worship team or praise singing (which, incidentally, has caused me to abandon the use of the word "awesome"), my husband and I have visited some churches.

Some who would advertise traditional worship style have nonetheless found that they need a PowerPoint screen to stay in sync with today's trends. Churches that never would allow a piano, organ, choir loft or even a pulpit in the altar spot have no problem prostituting that area with a TV screen, drum set or electronic equipment with brand names plastered across the front..."

Go to the link and read the whole thing. I remember attending a Fuller Institute church growth conference. During a break after the "worship" piece, which was all about scrapping every vestige of tradition, I asked Dr. John Maxwell (a Wesleyan) how an Episcopal Church could possibly do what the other speakers were suggesting.

"You can't," he replied. "You have to go back into your tradition and see what the founders were trying to achieve, then work at doing that well. There are a lot of great things in the Book of Common Prayer."